The Last Weeks of Summer 2014 at Cafe Drake HRV

Cool weather will soon halt our habit of serving an herb plate with most meals at Cafe Drake HRV. We're already excited for Spring 2015 and the return of mitsuba, rau ram and shiso as seen above, L-R.

Finger-sized eggplants from the Kingston Farmers' Market are streaked with varying hues of purple and lavender and taste as good as they look.

The color turns less appealing when cooked but the tiny eggplants have a softer, sweeter flavor and texture than the larger globe variety.

We roasted then pan-fried the baby eggplants with onions and spices as part of a South Indian meal seen above. The mustard greens curry was prepared with our own garden produce and ditto for the cilantro and mint chutney. A sambar spiked with Cafe Drake HRV long beans and kohlrabi, brown rice, yogurt and local cherry tomatoes rounded out the dinner plate.

Southern-style iron skillet cornbread is a summer staple at Cafe Drake HRV.

Cheese drenched and baked refried beans just like our mother used to make!

(above two photos) Doesn't a plate of refried beans, cornbread, chipotle peppers, garden-fresh arugula and stir-fried cauliflower (snagged at a roadside stand near Cafe Drake HRV) just scream Summer on a Plate?

A true August pleasure is an abundant cutting garden.